Post navigation

Hesjedal Auctions Off Pink Winners’ Jersey

A spectacular solo 150-kilometre mountain breakaway netted Italy’s Matteo Rabottini the first Giro stage win of his career despite a dangerous crash on Sunday. The 24-year-old Rabottini outsprinted Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez to take the mountain top win at Plan dei Resinelli while Rodriguez took the overall lead. Overnight leader Ryder Hesjedal of Canada finished 39 seconds down, allowing Rodriguez to move back into the overall lead.

A few minutes later, he was sitting down while a couple of Comegys students painted his beard pink. Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie seemed delighted at the sight, making sure everyone nearby with a camera phone knew what was happening.

After the girls completed their masterpiece, and posed for many, many photos, Kelce went inside and washed most of the paint out of the bushy, dark brown beard he began growing in February. Kelce has vowed not to trim the beard, which makes him look like a cross between a large woodland animal and the 1970s-era Bill Bergey. He said he is growing it mainly to give fans and teammates something to talk about.

Giro d’Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal is auctioning off one of the pink jerseys he wore while winning the gruelling 21-stage road bike race. His autographed jersey from Stage 7 is for sale on eBay until June 20. The bidding reached $6,600 on Monday.

Proceeds will go to Ryders Cycling Society of Canada, a non-profit founded by Hesjedal last year “to create and sustain opportunities for Canadians to ride bicycles.”

Kelce, a major rookie success last season after arriving in the sixth round from Cincinnati, still looked a little pink around the jawline as he lined up to take the team bus back to NovaCare.

That was after Kelce, his teammates, coaches, and various other employees from across the organization painted interior and exterior murals, laid mosaic tiles, constructed play equipment, planted gardens and played with kids on a turf field that was added to the concrete playground.

Because of the lockout, last year’s playground build didn’t include the players.

Tapp dancing

The Eagles have 12 defensive linemen on their roster right now, which is a lot, but not unheard of, given the current 90-man roster limit. What is unusual is that all of them seem to be good candidates for the nine or 10 spots on the 53-man roster that probably will be allocated to the d-line.

This could add up to a problem for a relatively expensive, role-playing vet like Darryl Tapp, who is in the final season of a 3-year, $9 million deal. Tapp is known as a dependable, hard-working player, but he missed four games with injuries in 2011 and didn’t have a sack or a hurry after Thanksgiving.